In Between
by ILoveCheetos-and-AteIsa
Summary: In between the thrilling adventures, mysterious islands, and serpent attacks, are the not-so-exciting days aboard the Dawn Treader... in which Caspian meets Lucy Pevensie for the first time (takes place somewhere in between the battle and the coronation in Prince Caspian). A collection of one-shots revolving mostly around Caspian and the Pevensies. Bookverse.
1. Heirs and Marriage

A quick note from the author before you, dear reader, proceed: this entire thing is meant to be a compilation of sorts of all the fics I never really finished, edited _just_ enough so that they make sense. Don't expect to read something with a completely structured plot, but if you're here to see our favorite kings and queens (with Eustace and Drinian on occasion!) talk and laugh and tell stories to one another, and nothing more, then here's something you might enjoy. That being said, thank you for taking the time to read this!

* * *

With his arms crossed in annoyance of the memory, Caspian mumbled something under his breath that was very impolite (and would probably have made Lucy scold him, if she had heard it).

"I don't believe it's quite as bad as you think," answered Lucy a bit absent-mindedly, scrunching up her face in concentration as she stared at the chessboard. Lucy often played against Reepicheep, and though of course the Mouse was a worthy opponent, their games did not usually last this long, for Reepicheep oftentimes lost when his thoughts wandered from the chessboard into the battlefield.

"It's _quite _'bad,' believe me," said Caspian. "And altogether an irritating and uncomfortable business." He leaned forward and made as if to move a pawn forward. But Lucy quickly stopped his hand (without having looked away from the board at all!).

"It's still my turn."

Her eyes scanned over the other side of the board, pausing at where Caspian had intended to move his piece. A moment later she had removed one of his knights. Caspian's black pawn stepped forward immediately, ignoring the imminent danger in which it now lay, as well as having opened a sure gateway to defeat. Lucy wanted to jump in excitement.

"Well, it's just _awful_!" He went on. "You'd think that, being a king, they wouldn't bother me with all these ridiculous and embarrassing matters."

Lucy nodded as she carefully estimated her next move, remembering that betraying one's emotions on the field of battle is always a bad idea. "Yes."

"But _no!—_even _Trumpkin_ is badgering me about it! And he's normally not even interested in this type of thing."

Caspian huffed angrily. Lucy masterfully flicked another black piece off the board.

"Checkmate."

"What?" He blinked, lifting his head to stare at the board, having forgotten that they were playing at all.

"Checkmate!" exclaimed Lucy, clapping her hands and smiling. Then, mistaking his woebegone expression for a look of shocked defeat, she at once said, "I'm sorry; I don't usually win at chess (except against Reep.) Peter and Edmund play with me all the time, but they're so much better at it than I am, so I almost never win at all. Anyway, what's all this awful business you've been going on about? I've already forgotten what it was bec—"

"They _insist _that I be _married_!" Caspian shouted angrily, pounding his fist on the chessboard and sending all of the pieces flying.

"Oh dear," said Lucy, silently watching the black and white pieces roll about the deck. Caspian had soundly ignored her comments about chess, but something told her that his mind was too distracted at the moment.

"Things are already bad enough with half the kingdom sending their daughters to me," said Caspian. "Can you believe it?"

"I'm afraid I can," said Lucy, trying to sound sympathetic, although she found it rather funny. Part of her _did _feel sorry for the distraught king, but the other part insisted on laughing and that part was much more dominant at the moment.

"No one is embarrassed in the slightest whenever they bring up their worries about my not having an heir yet. Trumpkin and the rest aren't helping at all! They all think that I've got to be wedded soon. And to the princess of Archenland, no less! One couldn't have been less subtle about how beautiful they think she is, and how nice it would be to see her future _golden haired _children."

"I see," said Lucy, stifling back a laugh.

"And do you know," continued the enraged and insulted Caspian, "no one has even asked me whether I _want_ to get married—or to whom, if I did!"

He obviously felt strongly about the idea.

"I suppose," said Lucy, "you've no intention of doing so."

She tried as hard as she could to look at it from his way of seeing things. (Having been Queen alongside two brothers and a sister, Lucy had not experienced the same trouble on the question of "heirs" since there were always enough sovereigns at hand when one of them was in some sort of danger.)

"No," Caspian said passionately. "I don't."

There was a short silence in which he looked absolutely thunderous, an awful mixture of frustration and impatience written across his face. He looked as if he might shout and cry and perhaps even laugh all at the same time. Any idea of laughing vanished from Lucy's mind once she saw that it was a serious matter indeed to Caspian. She could tell that this was not only about heirs and marriage.

Caspian was not usually angered about little matters so quickly—in fact, he was normally a very cheerful and optimistic sort of person—so Lucy knew that he had long seethed about it and simply needed to "let it out," as Edmund might have put it.

"Sometimes," continued Caspian (with every word looking less like an insulted king and more like a stubborn, angry little boy), "I wish I could simply run away. No more politics or diplomacy or education!"

He was practically fuming. "If only I was—if I wasn't a king, I could sail about and go voyaging instead of dealing with this _nonsense_. I might be able to go off on adventures and do all sorts of exciting things, just like in the stories. Can't a fellow have his own way for once? What is the good of being king if all I'm allowed to do is be forced from one unpleasant position to another?"

It was at this moment that Lucy really began feeling sorry for him. Caspian, who had been very grown-up and responsible in the last three years, was after all only a boy, and sometimes he needed to be so. But he seemed to have no close friends or siblings with whom he could regularly confide in, like Lucy had. For his own sake, Lucy hoped that Caspian would one day marry someone who loved him so that he might not always be without family. But it seemed that he wasn't ready for that yet.

At the same time, Lucy was beginning to feel rather irritated. Caspian oughtn't complain about silly things, she thought. And while nobody was perfect (certainly not Lucy, nor Susan, nor Edmund; not even High King Peter) she couldn't stand to see Caspian acting so—so—unlike himself, so unkingly, and so childish.

Lucy suddenly had the unpleasant thought that it was _she _who must rebuke him, and that it was why she had been sent to play chess with him in the first place. As for who it was that had sent her, there was no question.

"Caspian dear," pleaded Lucy, very gently. "Please don't say such things. You know it's not like that at all—not even in the stories, and I ought to know."

Caspian frowned. Lucy tried her best to remain patient.

"It's frustrating indeed, but you mustn't say things you may later regret. You ought to talk to someone—other than me, I mean, someone back at home, since someday we'll have to go back—so that you don't have to bury all those little things underneath. They have a way of getting under one's skin. But they're nothing more than that, really: little things that won't matter as much in the future."

By the look on his face, she had guessed rightly. Poor Caspian! Not for the last time, she felt sad that he did not have a mother and father anymore.

"I—I... know," he replied quietly, suddenly much calmer. Perhaps, after having spoken his thoughts out loud, and having listened to Lucy, he had realized just how silly his words sounded. "I knew. I'm sorry; I didn't really mean what I said."

"That's alright," said Lucy, who also felt less impatient and sad now that the matter had blown over. "Besides, I'm not the one you ought to be apologizing to anyway."

"But I am still sorry," Caspian said sullenly. After another moment's silence, he gave Lucy a small smile.

"I don't suppose," he said, "you happen to know a way to make everyone stop telling me to 'choose a Queen and get it over with'?"

Lucy suspected that his half-hearted voice impression about choosing a queen ought to be attributed to Trumpkin.

"I don't think they're ever going to stop," Lucy admitted truthfully (and somewhat regretfully), "until you _are_ married."

She could tell that Caspian had started to feel better. It was as if his angry outburst had been no more than a bad dream, and had already begun fading from memory.

"Then I am destined—cursed, rather—to be burdened for the rest of my life," said Caspian with a short laugh.

"Don't you want to get married someday?" said Lucy.

"Someday, yes," he answered thoughtfully. Then to Lucy's surprise, he abruptly turned red. "But—not now—not yet, I think. Barely seventeen sounds a bit too soon for— marriage—and—having heirs."

Lucy burst out laughing. Caspian turned a shade redder. Somehow, she had the feeling that he hadn't only been talking about his age in years, and the still uncomfortable idea of "little golden haired children." Barely seventeen was _quite _soon, for more reasons than one. But Lucy couldn't help it: she laughed.

"Oh, dear, dear Caspian!" exclaimed Lucy. She had just witnessed him complain about marriages, talk of running away, apologize, and then turn red over a discussion of heirs in a matter of minutes. It all seemed rather funny, somehow. Yes, this boy king of Narnia was not really old enough yet. And there was nothing wrong with that. He still had time, which was what he needed, and possibly an adventure or two (which they were all sure to experience on this voyage).

"Maybe," said she, "by the time you come back to Narnia, you'll be old enough. Sometimes being old enough isn't a matter of years."

Lucy said this very quickly, very earnestly, and very seriously, and so not like the young girl that she was, that Caspian almost thought that he was talking with someone else entirely; someone much older and wiser than he was. Then all at once the spell was broken, and she was just Lucy again, sitting on the other side of an empty chessboard. "Yes," replied Caspian slowly. He smiled as he stared out at the blue sea, tinted golden by sunlight. "I'll think about it."

Lucy thought he looked like he was trying to remember something he'd never seen before—it was a very strange feeling, but she knew what it was like. (If you have had the fortune to have felt it before, in a dream perhaps, then you will know why it feels so strange.)

They silently began to pick up the scattered chess pieces and put them back on the board. Lucy started humming an old tune. And Caspian felt infinitely better than he had in the past hour.

"Shall we play again?"


	2. A Romp

Brief little author's note: I know I said this would be _Voyage_ one-shots, but I never said I wouldn't publish _Prince Caspian_ one-shots, did I? Ah, well, sorry for taking so long to update, but as you all know 2020 has been a rather rough year. And, like I've previously said, this is just a sort of "dump" for me to put all my unfinished little fics in, because I don't where else I would put them, so there really isn't any sort of plot or point to this. (Yes, I know, I promised Eustace and Drinian too. I just need to edit a _lot_ more...)

_The best thing of all about this feast was that there was no breaking up or going away, but as the talk grew quieter and slower, one after another would begin to nod and finally drop off to sleep with feet toward the fire and good friends on either side, till at last there was silence all round the circle..._

* * *

Once the battle and the knighting were over there was no particular reason why Caspian should stay in the battlefield now that Aslan and the Kings were there to be in command. So he'd begun to slowly creep out of the field, with his old Nurse—oh, how many things he had to tell her—when King Peter sought him out, crying:

"There you are, Caspian! I've been looking all over for you. Come on; the girls have been wanting to meet you too."

Nurse told him to go, and said that she would certainly be alright, now that Aslan was here, as well as Doctor Cornelius and Trufflehunter and all the rest. Besides, there certainly wasn't any reason a _king_ needed a nurse.

"Oh, but—we shall meet again soon, shan't we?" Caspian said. "We _must_. There are so many things—"

She interrupted him with a chuckle. "Yes, there will be time for these things, your Majesty. There always is. Now go, the High King is waiting."

With a glad and relieved smile, Caspian joined Peter and together they went through the swarms of Narnians that seemed to miraculously make way for them—or, perhaps, they made way for King Peter. Before he knew it, there was Queen Susan and Queen Lucy, and Caspian was at a loss for words. In fact, he was quite certain that his face turned into a most embarrassing shade of red. But he must have managed a quick bow and stammered out some words, because Lucy laughed in response and enveloped him in a warm embrace.

"Oh, Caspian! Poor, poor Caspian. I _do_ feel sorry for you, after all you've been through! Aslan is here, and so are we! Don't worry, Old Narnia's going to be all right from now on."

Anyone (and particularly a future king) might have been terribly offended by such a greeting, but Lucy had such a way of doing things that it seemed very charming and friendly instead. Caspian could not help but believe every word she spoke.

Susan only smiled; it was a very warm and gracious sort of smile that somehow made Caspian feel more at ease.

Meanwhile Edmund had arrived to greet his sisters—and what a happy thing it was! To see brother and sisters laugh and kiss and embrace one another unashamedly was something Caspian hardly ever saw in the Telmarine courts where he grew up. It made him unspeakably happy. But things, as Lucy said, would get better from now on, and in this she was right.

That night, they stayed by the river. A bonfire was lit and there was glad feasting and dancing all round. It was great fun to see everyone try to join the Maenads and their mad romp. The Fauns, of course, managed to do very well at this. Susan joined, and though she was not as wild a dancer as the Maenads, she was graceful and skilled and fleet of foot. Then Lucy joined, laughing as she missed the too-quick steps and imploring everyone around her to join the dance.

"Peter! Pete, Ed, come on!"

Peter laughed too, defeated, dragging Edmund along with him.

"Oh no, you _don't_—"

Caspian was pulled along by Edmund and, not bothering to resist at all, fell into the circle of Fauns and Maenads and tried to follow as best he could. He laughed more than he danced, really.

The romp, however, was not truly a Romp until Aslan joined in with his deep, rumbling laughter. _He_ kept up the dance quite well.

The dance seemed to last for hours and hours. But soon enough everyone settled down around the fire in groups to rest and talk and eat once more. Peter and Susan had vanished (Edmund told them not to worry; they were talking with the Dryads, he said) but Lucy asked Caspian if he didn't mind staying with her to talk, and he said yes, rather. They both ended up in a comfortable little spot between the Dryads and the Fauns.

"I'm sorry—I—I can't help it," said Lucy, "I've wanted to make friends with you ever since the D.L.F. told us! I hope I didn't startle you too much earlier, when we first met. I was just so very excited; knowing that you'd met Aslan, that you are to be King now... and then we finally met Peter again and he told us how wonderful you were... oh, Caspian, you can't begin to imagine how _happy_ I am that Narnia will have someone like you to be her King, because I think you'll be a very good one."

Caspian hardly knew what to say to this. You see, having grown up a prince with hardly any friends, Caspian was used to receiving compliments. Now, most of these compliments came from lords and visiting noblemen, and none of them truly seemed to mean what they said (particularly because, thought Caspian, most Telmarine lords had a disdain for little children). It is an unspoken rule that everyone must needs be extremely polite to a prince.

But now, Lucy's words, spoken with utter earnestness and sincerity, surprised Caspian a little. She looked so _truthful_ it almost hurt him. He felt overwhelmed by gratitude. Then, he suddenly panicked, not knowing what to say at all, but saw that she understood exactly what he meant.

"Thank you," he said instead, eyes glistening with more than just a reflection from the fire.

"I know," Lucy replied. Then, suddenly, the spell of solemnity broken, she moved back a little to put her back against a tree and breathe a sigh of contentment and rest. Her eyes rested upon Aslan, some way off, the High King sitting beside him, and if it was possible she looked even happier than before.


End file.
